By Emily Ernsberger

WASHINGTON, DC — President Trump was sworn in at noon. The rain started back up at 12:01.

That did not seem to bother any of the thousands of people witnessing Trump becoming the 45th president of the United States on Friday. He was, after all, there to say the power of democracy was in their hands.

“We are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American people,” he said.

Like he had throughout his campaign, Trump spoke about an “American carnage” of extreme poverty, poor infrastructure, depleting military force, corrupt educational system and a dangerous crime culture. He continued to blame these problems on an inconsiderate federal government and promised to make America great again.

“I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never ever let you down,” he said.

He described a nation depending solely on American workers, infrastructure revitalization and a stronger military focused on domestic defense.

“This is how you win,” a person in the crowd said.

Thousands of people gathered from the Capitol building down the National Mall to witness the historic event. Many supporters and spectators arrived in the wee hours of Friday morning.

Crowds gathered from the early morning to witness the inauguration. Video by Melanie Metzman | IDS

Former Democratic nominee for president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was present at the inauguration not completely hiding her discomfort watching her vanquisher. She was accompanying her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Presidents Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush and Barack Obama were also present with their respective wives.

Trump took no stops to throw indirect punches at his predecessors. He suggested they did not care about Americans and do not act on their words.

“He isn’t a politician,” someone in the crowd said.

“He’s a true statesman,” a stranger responded.

Trump cited the Bible to say that good happens with unity and concluded by saying his promise to bring power back to the citizenry can only be achieved with cooperation.

By Lydia Gerike

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bright red hats dotted the sea of hopefuls who flocked to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Friday to celebrate the transition of power they believe will make America great again.

People in line for general admission to the inauguration talked about how they had been waiting since 4 a.m. just to be as close as possible when Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States.

“We are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people,” President Trump said to his supporters in his inaugural address.

Along the vast expanse of the mall, ideologies clashed just as they had during election season.

A small crowd clapped as a camouflage-clad young man told a group holding anti-deportation signs that they were wrong. Trump only wanted to free the United States of all the bad people who are now allowed to cross the border, he told them.

Despite the possibility of rain ruining his artwork, another young man showed his patriotism with face paint — one half blue with white stars and the other half red and white stripes.

Some people draped flags over their shoulders to assure other attendees that he or she supported the U.S., Trump or Israel. Others used their makeshift capes to let their neighbors know they would not be tread on.

New York City’s infamous Naked Cowboy transferred to D.C. for the weekend to serenade the waiting audience. The street performer wore nothing but his signature cowboy hat and boots, his guitar and a pair of briefs with “TRUMP” written in red and blue across the butt.

“God bless the U.S.A.,” Lee Greenwood crooned in a recording played over the speaker system before the ceremony began at 11:30 a.m.

Those on the usual grassy expanse of the National Mall took shelter under white plastic panels put down by the National Parks Service. The plastic saved the shoes of everyone who may have otherwise been stuck in the mud as well as the Park Service’s work on maintaining the lawn.

Although there is no official number, the D.C. Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management estimated before the ceremony that between 800,000 and 900,000 people would be in attendance. This meant a large crowd would be there to celebrate the transition of power, but the crowd did not fill the whole mall.

Large swaths of white space remained in different areas like the half-filled pages at the end of the chapters of a book. A young girl — her candidate allegiance undeterminable from the plain winter clothes she wore — used the temporary white plastic flooring to her advantage to glide around in a pair of black Heelys as she and her mother headed toward the information booth.

As former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, took their seats onstage, a chorus of booing could be heard from the soon-to-be president’s supporters.

Trump’s entrance was met with a much more positive reaction.

“USA, USA," the crowd chanted.

All the while, soldiers, stationed wherever the barricades separated one entrance from the next, lined the fences. Throughout the ceremony, they rarely turned around and exercised self-discipline to keep their eyes on the impassioned civilians.

Trump supporters wave from a float at the Women's March on Washington protesters Jan. 21 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Evan De Stefano | IDS

By Lydia Gerike

WASHINGTON, D.C. — For a few IU students who were able to make the trip, a Friday morning lesson in civics took place at the United States Capitol instead of in their usual Bloomington classrooms. The swearing-in of President Trump offered an up-close chance to experience one of the most ceremonial days in the American political cycle.

Senior Becca Silbar was positioned to report on the inauguration from the White House before the sun even began to rise.

As a production assistant for Fox News, Silbar has worked throughout election season to cover debates, rallies and the Republican National Convention. She said her work has mostly focused on Republican events because Fox is more connected to the Republican Party.

“I feel like I’ve been there from the start,” Silbar said. “I was at the first primary, and now here we are at the end, which is kind of crazy.”

Silbar estimated she missed about a month and a half of school for campaign events but said she knowingly traded the classroom for real-world experience.

Silbar said Fox is a good company to work for because she is rewarded with better experiences the more she works for them. In the past she has escorted IU alumnus Mark Cuban for a show and delivered coffee to Vice President Mike Pence at the RNC.

“It’s really cool that before I graduate school I’ll have seven or eight television credits,” Silbar said.

Sophomore Hannah Kraus and junior Nick Magers traveled to the East Coast for their own enjoyment.

“It was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing,” Kraus said. “It’s never like I’ve always wanted to go to an inauguration.”

Kraus said she found cheap plane tickets right after the election, and the couple were able to secure access to a ticketed area of the inauguration by sending a request through their legislators. They were surprised by how easy the process was, they said.

Magers had attended Trump rallies in the past, but of the two, Kraus is more politically involved.

She likes to keep up with the news and regularly attends meetings for College Republicans at IU, she said. In the past election, she was an election judge at Union Street Center and made sure everything was fair and nonpartisan.

Even so, she still recognized how different attending the inauguration was.

“This is the most intense thing I’ve done politically,” she said.

Her support for Trump came after her first-choice candidate, Marco Rubio, dropped out of the race before the Indiana primary, she said. As she entered the voting booth on primary day, she knew she had to make a decision between Trump and Ted Cruz, Kraus said. Ultimately, she chose the man who would go on to become president. She said she felt confident in her decision as she walked out of the voting booth.

“I just went with my gut and hit the button,” Kraus said.

Magers said he was drawn to Trump because the former businessman didn’t always stick to the typical political correctness most candidates have.

The two said they consider themselves to be part of the silent majority.

The couple said they felt the atmosphere in Bloomington is much more hostile toward Trump supporters. In contrast, the inauguration crowd wanted to celebrate its new leader, they said. It was a pleasant surprise for them to see people wearing their Trump gear out in the open.

Magers typically avoids wearing his Trump hat at IU or back home in Indianapolis for fear of being misinterpreted as a bigot, he said.

“You never know what look you may get or what someone may say or think of you,” Magers said.

He said he may consider pinning his “Hoosiers for Trump” button on his backpack, but Kraus said she thinks she will continue to keep her ideals to herself.

By Lydia Gerike

While most attendants came to Washington, D.C., to celebrate the inauguration of Donald Trump, a vocal group continued to protest the man many Americans do not want leading their country.

The 64-year-old Seattle native Trip Allen carried a Black Lives Matter sign stuck with painter’s tape to a pink Thunderstick, an inflatable noisemakers they pass out at sporting events to make everyone as loud as possible.

“I could not sit by and let democracy fade away,” Allen said. “I felt like I had to bear witness and raise my voice, right at this moment.”

Security had specific regulations for the crowd about signs and banners at the inauguration. They demanded the posters be within certain dimensions and banned any poles or supports to hold up posters altogether. Allen’s sign was only slightly larger than a piece of computer paper, and he wasn’t using a traditional support to hold his message above the crowd.

The Thunderstick did not faze the group of soldiers standing on the other side of the crowd-control fence.

By Leah Carter

INDIANAPOLIS — More than 7,500 demonstrators gathered on the Statehouse lawn in Indianapolis on Saturday to protest President Trump’s inauguration and to hear activists and community organizers from across the state speak.

Many wore pink hats with ears to show solidarity with women’s rights movements. People sang “We Will Overcome” and “We Are One” in unison. They came bearing signs and T-shirts supporting women’s rights, Black Lives Matter, LGBT rights and environmental justice.

The rally was just one of more than six hundred rallies and demonstrations for women’s rights worldwide.

“It’s a big deal for us to be able to represent ourselves and to be able to show that we’re not going to stand by while other people tell us what we need to do,” said Mariam Ali from Indianapolis.

For Mariam, motivation to attend the Women’s March rally comes not only from her gender, but also from her religion, she said.

“As a Muslim I believe that everything happens for a reason, and whether it’s good or bad it’s good because God knows what’s best for us,” Ali said. “Hopefully this reason will be that it is allowing us to unite together and work together.”

Other attendees were not so optimistic about the next four years, and many expressed a fear of losing many of their civil rights.

IU students from the Kelley School of Business traveled to Indianapolis for the women's march. Video by Melanie Metzman | IDS

Jones’ own experiences with racism and misogyny have shaped her views and support of black liberation and rights for women of color.

“As a black woman I have faced racism,” Jones said. “I faced abuse from men and men saying things like ‘you’re pretty for a black girl.’”

Many men also came out to show support the Women’s March and stressed the importance of male involvement in women’s rights movements.

“It’s kind of ridiculous that women aren’t treated the same as men,” Colin Nesbit from Indianapolis said. “If anyone tried to take away any men’s rights there would be rioting in the streets and things would be on fire.”

Brett Morgan, a sophomore at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, said he didn’t know why the march wasn’t important to everybody, regardless of gender.

“Girls get glittered,” Anne Gross, a 24-year-old from Indianapolis, said while standing on a platform. She poured glitter on people passing underneath her.

“I came here to feel as one with everyone — to know I’m not alone,” Gross said. “So I’m spreading glitter for girls to spread hope and love and just know no one is alone. We’re all here. Whether it’s mental, physical, spiritual, we’re all here.”

Signs bore slogans such as “Tell Trump: It is Unamerican to ban Muslims,” “Our rights are not up for grabs. Neither are we” and “Pussy grabs back.”

“I think one of the biggest things is just to be there for people who feel forgotten,” said Lily Schwab, a sophomore from Ball State.

“Maybe we got a little complacent in 2008 because we elected a black president, and it’s like ‘oh, we’re post-racial,’ but this election showed us we have so much further to go as a nation,” said Dana Black, a 2016 democratic candidate for the Indiana House of Representatives. “To see all these people out here lets me know that there are a lot of people that are fired up.”

Hannah Reed contributed reporting

<Protesters march down Pennsylvania Avenue during the Women's March on Washington Jan. 21. Photo by Evan De Stefano | IDS

By Emily Ernsberger

Nearly a million people gathered south of the National Mall on Saturday for the Women’s March on Washington, a protest against the inauguration of President Trump and his administration’s stances on various social issues. Other marches took place across the nation in cities including Chicago, New York City, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Boston, and around the world in London; Paris; Dublin; Cape Town, South Africa; and Nairobi, Kenya.

The march in Washington, D.C., drew more people to the capital than Friday’s inauguration ceremonies. At the event’s start, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority — Washington’s metro rail department — said about 275,000 people had ridden the metro by 11 a.m., eight times more than a normal Saturday. The WMATA said this was higher than both crowds for Trump’s and George W. Bush’s second inauguration.

Reports prior to the event suggested about 200,000 were expected to be at the march.

"This is an outpouring of energy and true democracy like I have never seen in my very long life," Steinem said in her speech. "It is wide in age. It is deep in diversity."

Though it was named a women's march and most of the rallying topics included female health and work rights, various other speeches were about immigration, climate change, education, safeguarding Muslims, police brutality against African-Americans and the patriarchal society.

Scores of homemade signs with variations of "my pussy grabs back," "black lives matter" and "not my president," among others, were raised by marchers. Pink hats with corners at the top — symbolizing a vagina — were the symbol of the rallies across the world. Most were knitted or sewn at home, or were purchased from others at the march.

Some said they came to the rally to stand up against hate, for which Trump and the Republican party are often criticized. Others said they came for their families, with some even bringing their children.